Copyright:Adam Block
中文翻譯:
在遙遠的宇宙裡，有一個超級巨大的星系叫做NGC 6872！這個星系非常大，從一邊到另一邊足足有500,000光年，真是比我們的銀河系還要大五倍呢！它的位置在距離地球大約2億光年的南方星座Pavo，也就是孔雀座。NGC 6872的旋臂像大鳥的翅膀一樣展開，所以大家都叫它海鷗星系！這裡有許多年輕的星星，它們看起來青藍又亮眼，還有許多正在形成的新星。這些美麗的旋臂是因為NGC 6872曾經和一個叫做IC 4970的小星系互相吸引，這讓它們呈現出這樣獨特的形狀。天文學家還在它的周圍發現了其他星系，像是NGC 6876，這是一個巨大的橢圓形星系，位於海鷗星系的上方和右方。這個星系的故事就像一個宇宙中的大冒險，讓我們一起探索這神奇的星空吧！
原文:
Over 500,000 light years across, NGC 6872 (bottom left) is a truly enormous barred spiral galaxy. At least 5 times the size of our own large Milky Way, NGC 6872 is the largest known spiral galaxy. About 200 million light-years distant toward the southern constellation Pavo, the Peacock, the appearance of this giant galaxy’s stretched out spiral arms suggest the wings of a giant bird. So its popular moniker is the Condor galaxy. Lined with massive young, bluish star clusters and star-forming regions, the extended and distorted spiral arms are due to NGC 6872’s past gravitational interactions with the nearby smaller galaxy IC 4970, visible here below the giant spiral galaxy’s core. Other members of the southern Pavo galaxy group are scattered through this magnificent galaxy group portrait, with the dominant giant elliptical galaxy, NGC 6876, above and right of the soaring Condor galaxy.
來源:NASA每日圖片
